No one would blame Elon Musk if he was in the middle of a week-long bender, celebrating the successful launch of the most powerful rocket in human history.
The Falcon Heavy blasted into the heavens on Tuesday afternoon, with the twin boosters safely landing back on their launch pads. Meanwhile, aficionados were treated to a live stream of the midnight-cherry Tesla Roadster shooting through the cosmos with a dummy astronaut in the driver's seat, while David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' played over the speakers.
The stream showed on the dashboard a sign saying 'Don't Panic', which is a nod to Douglas Adams' comedy sci-fi series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - in the story, the two words are emblazoned on the guide's cover.
Elon Musk expects the Roadster to be floating through space for millions, if not billions of years to come and as a result, he added in a much more sly message to those who come across the car.
A picture posted onto the entrepreneur's Instagram is captioned: "Printed on the circuit board of a car in deep space."
It shows a green circuit board with 'Made on Earth by humans' written on it - just in case any aliens come across the bizarre vehicle and need to know where it came from or who constructed it.
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Imagine if, further into the future, a bunch of interstellar-travelling Earthlings shooting through space stumble across the Tesla and get the surprise of their lives to see is was made by a human ancestor.
However, there is concern about how long the car will actually survive in the deep recesses of space. Funnily enough, the final burn of the rocket has proved so powerful, the car is heading closer to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
"Third burn successful. Exceeded Mars orbit and kept going to the Asteroid Belt," Musk wrote on Twitter.
That's leading to some people casting doubt on whether the Tesla will withstand a journey through the asteroid belt. While the huge chunks of space rock aren't as close together as Hollywood movies make them out to be, there is still the danger of it being smashed to smithereens.
NASA astrophysicist Simon Porter wrote on Twitter: "So, this is probably unstable due to Jupiter on the decades timescale, not billions of years. But hey, first private spacecraft to the belt, beating the asteroid miners."
Other astronomers have been doing some calculations of their own, estimating the Roadster will likely survive for the next 10-12,000 years, which still isn't too bad. Plenty of time for an alien spacecraft to come across it.
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Regardless of the outcome of the vehicle, Musk hopes his launch of the world's most powerful rocket will result in a new space race.
He told reporters: "I think it's going to encourage other countries and companies to raise their sights and say, 'We can do bigger and better,' which is great.
"We want a new space race. Space races are exciting."
Featured Image Credit: Elon Musk/InstagramTopics: tesla, elon musk, World News, Awesome, Rocket, News, Interesting, Technology, space
